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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Lost in Shangri-La: The Epic True Story of a Plane Crash into the Stone Age by Mitchell Zuckoff

Publisher: Harper

Publish Date: April 26, 2011

Hardcover, 400 pages Non-fictionISBN:978-0061988349

My Review

Why I Read This: It sounded like a fascinating premise and I'm trying to read more non-fiction.

My Thoughts: Wow, this was a pretty amazing book. I have said it before, but nonfiction is not my usual cup of tea. However with such great nonfiction books out there, this is really beginning to change. Lost in Shangri-La is one of those books. It reads easily like a fiction book and I never got bogged down in any of the details. There was one part early when it switched to some different characters, that seemed a little confusing, but as I kept reading I realized it was important to delve into those characters and this ended up being one of my favorite things about the book.

What really stood out was the story is about the various players in the rescue of the survivors of this crash. I like that it didn't only focus on the survivors, but I got a look at most of the people involved in the rescue. Mr. Zuckoff did a lot of research and some great writing to make this book turn out this interesting and informative. Add to the story and the characters, various facts about World War II and other things going on at the time and the book is a true winner for me. I plan on handing this one to my history buff husband next and finding out what he thinks. One final thing that was neat was the pictures scattered throughout - it was really interesting to see pictures of those people involved during that time. Mr. Zuckoff gets an A for effort and writing in my opinion!

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

About the Book:

On May 13, 1945, twenty-four officers and enlisted men and women
stationed on what was then Dutch New Guinea boarded a transport plane
named the Gremlin Special for a sightseeing trip over
“Shangri-La.” A beautiful and mysterious valley surrounded by steep,
jagged mountain peaks deep within the island’s uncharted jungle, this
hidden retreat was named after the fabled paradise in the bestselling
novel Lost Horizon. But unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of
James Hilton’s book, this Shangri-La was the home of Stone Age
warriors—spear-carrying tribesmen rumored to be headhunters and
cannibals.

But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival
when the plane crashed. Miraculously, three passengers survived—WAC
Corporal Margaret Hastings, Lieutenant John McCollom, and Sergeant
Kenneth Decker. Margaret, barefoot and burned, had no choice but to wear
her dead best friend’s shoes. McCollom, grieving the death of his twin
brother also aboard the Gremlin Special, masked his grief with stoicism. Decker, too, was severely burned and suffered a bloody, gaping head wound.

Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to disease,
parasites, and poisonous snakes in the wet jungle climate, the trio
faced certain death unless they left the wreckage. Caught between
man-eating headhunters and the enemy Japanese, with nothing to sustain
them but a handful of candy and their own fortitude, they endured a
harrowing trek down the mountainside—an exhausting journey into the
unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of
superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man–or woman.

Drawn from personal interviews, declassified Army documents, personal
photos and mementos, a daily journal kept between the crash and the
rescue effort, and original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts
this incredible true-life adventure for the first time. Mitchell Zuckoff
reveals how the determined trio—dehydrated, sick, and in pain—traversed
the dense jungle foliage to find help; how a brave band of
Filipino-American paratroopers, led by a dogged captain, risked their
own lives to save the survivors; how the Americans would be protected by
and eventually befriend a noble native chief and his people; and how a
cowboy colonel was willing to risk a previously untried rescue mission
to get them out.

A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that vividly brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening, and comic, Lost in Shangri-La is a thrill ride from beginning to end.

About the Author:
Mitchell Zuckoff’s honors include the 2000 Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. His book Choosing Naia: A Family’s Journey was a Boston Globe bestseller and won the Christopher Award.

1 comments:

I'm a huge non-fiction fan so it always makes me happy when people try out the genre. I'm glad to know that this book worked for you - I loved it as well, but knowing that you don't usually read non-fiction and yet you still enjoyed it says a lot.